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Wednesday, December 03, 2014

Dawn’s Doily: A Crochet Treasure Hunt

Dawn Speaks inherited
a gorgeous doily from her mother; a doily that held many special memories for
her. Dawn, who is a high school business
education teacher in Berkeley County, West Virginia, wanted to recreate the
doily, but had searched in vain for the pattern for many years. She never gave
up on her search, however, and last week, Dawn posted the story of her doily in
the Threadies Facebook group:

“My treasure hunt is for a special crochet pattern. I hope
by posting these pictures of my mom's doily I will be able to find someone that
has or knows where I can find this pattern. My mother crocheted this doily
while she was pregnant for me in 1951. For many years the doily was always kept
on a large square table in our "front" room right beside the front
door. My grandmother Josie's old fashioned lamp was the only other item on the
table.

When I was 4 or 5 years old, I used my kid scissors on a
little section of the doily, and it was put away for many years and never
brought out unless we were showing it to someone. About 40 years ago, my mother
handed me the doily and said basically that I had cut up the doily, so now I
could put my crochet skills to work and repair it.

It wasn't easy to fix; but I did, and I returned it to her
the following Christmas. It took her almost 30 minutes to find the repair! When
she took more than 5 minutes to find the place I had sliced, I knew I could
crochet as well as my mother--and she did positively beautiful work. This doily
is now mine and every now and then it is brought out and put on display.

I have looked for this pattern for many years. My mother and
my aunts generally used Coats & Clarks patterns, and they shared them
around the family. No one in the family remembers the pattern, but they do
remember the doily that was on the table for so many years.

If anyone has this pattern, or has seen and knows where they
came across it, I would love to hear from you. As I said before, I have been
looking for this pattern for many years and have not been successful. Any help
would be greatly appreciated!”

After Dawn posted her
story and pictures of her doily, several other members of the group made suggestions
and guesses as to where the pattern could have originated from.

“Could this be the
same doily Dawn? I searched for 1940 doily patterns and this photo was among many. I
didn't get too far in the search for the pattern but if this is it then you can
know it's out there somewhere.”

Dawn realized that
the picture Penny had found was of her doily! She was off on the hunt again,
but this time she had an image to go by. Within minutes, she had found a copy
of the pattern listed for sale on Ebay, which she immediately ordered.

Another member of
the group, Cynthia Alicea, posted that she recognized the doily, and that the pattern
was originally published as “Tea Table Cover” in the Woman’s Day 1949 Crochet
Annual. Cynthia also mentioned that the pattern could be found for free online.
But Dawn replied that she had been searching for the pattern for so long that
she was happy to pay for a copy.

Dawn is thrilled to
have found the pattern at last, and plans on using it to crochet even more
family heirlooms:

“When mom made this doily she had been crocheting for
only a few years. I think she did a great job considering this was one of her early
projects. When you look really closely, you can see how consistent her tension
and stitches were. She used Size 30 Coats & Clarks for the doily and I was
able to use the same thread. I'm glad she used white because that made
making the repair a little easier.

I
have two grown daughters, so I know I will be making at least two doilies from the pattern.
There are also other members of the family that admired and remembered that
doily always being on the table in the front room and I know they would cherish
having their own doily.”

Dawn and her
husband will be celebrating their 45th wedding anniversary on New Year’s
Eve. In addition to their two daughters,
they have four grandsons. Dawn’s husband is a retired Marine and technology
electrician. Dawn says she is looking forward to retirement in a few years so
that she can do even more crocheting.

I love a good mystery,
and I love happy endings even more. Dawn’s
story has both, and it is even about crochet; what could be better? Thank you
for sharing your story, Dawn!

9 comments:

Ann, Thank you ever so much for adding the story of Mom's doily and my search for the pattern over the years. Thank you also to Penny Freshour and Cynthia Alicea for their help in finding this pattern.

Ann, Thank you ever so much for adding the story of Mom's doily and my search for the pattern over the years. Thank you also to Penny Freshour and Cynthia Alicea for their help in finding this pattern.

It is stories like these that make all of our hearts smile. It's so wonderful she was able to find the pattern. Thread crochet is such a beautiful art form. I loved how she said that everyone remembered the lovely doily. Doilies do that to you, the reach out and grab your heart!

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About Me

I love crochet, and although crochet has been my career and means of support for most of my life, I would crochet every day even if I never made a dime off of it!

But, I have been a professional crochet designer for almost 30 years. I worked as a technical editor for Annie's Attic for two years, and was the in-house designer for Annie's Attic and the NeedleCraft Shop for several years. In 2008, I left DRG Publishing where I was the crochet pattern book coordinator. I am now self-publishing my original designs through my company, BellaCrochet. You can see all my designs in my Etsy shop: https://www.etsy.com/shop/bellacrochetI love creating vintage- look thread designs- I am a doily and potholder girl! I am the proud mother of 3 daughters and 3 sons, and the grandmother of 16 sweet and wonderful grandchildren. I live on a farm in rural east Texas, with my darlin' man, David.